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Development of Monster Truck Madness started in 1995 as a DOS monster truck racing simulator named Metal Crush. After getting funds from Microsoft and licensing to use real life trucks, Microsoft decided the game must be run in a Windows 32-bits environment, like other TRI games published by Microsoft (that were ported to the Win32 API, like Fury3, a Win32 game based on the DOS Terminal Velocity's engine). The game was ported to Windows and it was renamed to Heavy Metal Truck for a short period of time. Heavy Metal Truck had a very primitive user interface, only 2 tracks (Indiana State Fairgrounds and Arizona), 5 basic trucks and it included a truck editor and a free roam mode, features that later were excluded from the final product. During the development of Heavy Metal Truck, a more user friendly graphical user interface was added, the stock trucks were removed and replaced from real life licensed trucks, and the name of the game was renamed to Monster Truck Madness.

A racing game, Monster Truck Madness allows players to select between the 12 real life monster trucks and compete with AI players in one of four modes - drag (based on PENDA Point Series), circuit, rally and tournament. It is also possible for human players to race against one another via DirectPlay.

In drag racing mode, monster trucks compete to be the first to cross a set finish line. Drag tracks has 2 lane styles, the straight and J-style.

The straight monster truck drag lane has 2 sets of ramps that lead to two 3-car jumps. The first ramp sends the player flying to the first 3-car jump, with the second jump coming up quickly. Once the player has cleared both jumps, the player have to make his way to the finish line as fast as he can. The J-style tracks add a tight turn between two sections of track: The first section is a straightaway with two jump ramps followed by the second section with a 5-car jump that sends the player to the finish line.

In circuit racing mode, the player has to follow checkpoints to finish an amount of laps set by the player. Circuits have a maximum of 20 laps and 7 opponents (8 trucks).

Circuits included in the game are:

A Crazy Eight

Based on Margaritaville, Texas. It is the most famous track of the series, being remade various times in different games made by TRI, such as 4x4 Evolution. It is the only track that includes an animated BIN model. This is the only available track in the demo version of the game.

Monster Truck Madness support customized additions and modifications such as new trucks and tracks via packaged files in a data archive known as "PODs", after the extension of the data files containing the mods. POD files are mounted in game via an ini text file located in the game directory. The POD file extension is a standard file format used in Terminal Reality games. Terminal Reality released a DOS track and truck editor called TrackEd, which include a POD file manager. However, there is plenty of third-party utilities made for the game and its sequel.

Throughout the game, commentary is provided by "Army" Armstrong, purportedly the Murray Walker of the monster trucking world. Of note is the modular way in which race calls are structured, such as Grave Digger / is doin' it / in the air!

MTM communities are now largely inactive. However, the game enjoyed significant popularity among casual gamers in the late 90s, and its success was largely carried through into the 21st century by its successor, Monster Truck Madness 2.

A sequel to the original and released in 1998, Monster Truck Madness 2 (abbreviated as MTM2, codenamed Metal Crush 2) offers improved graphics, an updated interface, new trucks and tracks and the addition of variable weather conditions. However, the game engine is essentially the same as that utilized in the original game. A testament to their similarity is the fact that most custom trucks and tracks are compatible with both games.